Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿
@notjustdna.bsky.social
Scientist and science writer from New Zealand. BioinfoTools on Twitter. Traveller. Cycle touring. More later - I really need to get to that eh? 😄
Just turned down a review request because the system was sending me daily reminders. I understand that's not the editor's fault (I've been yelled at for the reminder system not limiting itself to business days), but daily? Who thought that was a good idea?
IMO it’d help to call 'AI' centres *compute* farms, not data centres. It better conveys the issues with them. Using the older, generic term ‘data centre’ hides that there are different kinds of these things, and the 'AI' service kind has very different demands. 1/n
Explainer: What is a data centre and why is everyone freaking out now?
Explainer - Data centres have existed for decades, so what's the big deal now?
rnz.co.nz
#NZpol From @henrycooke.bsky.social at X-Twitter: “Chlöe Swarbrick says the Speaker has told her in private meetings that he has a different standard for Winston Peters as has been here so long he is part of the institution.” 1/2
Let me take a minute to tell you how bonkers this is. The first election I worked was (I think) 2008, before there was really any advance voting. At every election, if you weren't on the roll, we let you cast a special vote and then worked out if you were eligible afterwards. Two reasons: 1/2
Marc Daalder@marcdaalder.bsky.social · 2d agoThe Electoral Commission has told staff to turn away voters who aren't on the printed roll and who say they're unenrolled, but has no plans to count how many people will be affected. newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/03/t...
#NZ “Everything now is pain for me“ 😄 Cute story of a new immigrant who walked to the top of the Port Hills, behind #Christchurch Original on RNZ live blog, a few minutes ago.
#Christchurch #NZ “Dyers Pass is CLOSED from Hackthorne to Governors Bay and Summit Roads while contractors clear the road.” (via RNZ live feed.)
#NZ It seems a great initiative, but also needs improving. High-priority cases were notified, but too many other cases weren’t. – “The review made 48 recommendations, including identifying and contacting all unscreened and under-screened people as a priority.”
Almost a million cervical cancer screening notifications not sent out, review finds
Almost a million notifications did not get sent to people eligible for cancer screening due to flaws in the national cervical cancer screening programme, a review has found.
rnz.co.nz
An AI-supervised remote exam went so badly that 58,000 students must retake it – “Top scores increased by 5x.” – So now they’re to run “a “control exam”—that is, applicants will have to sit for another test, and they will do so in person.”
An AI-supervised remote exam went so badly that 58,000 students must retake it
Top scores increased by 5x.
arstechnica.com
#NZpol Hipkins nixes Peters as foreign affairs minister – "He's making international headlines for all the wrong reasons. He can't continue in that job, he can't credibly represent New Zealand on the world stage."” – Article says, "more to come…" 😄 1/2
Labour leader Chris Hipkins rules out working with Winston Peters as foreign affairs minister
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out working with New Zealand First's Winston Peters at the next election.
rnz.co.nz
#NZpol Rotorua mayor says Luxon didn’t need to apologise for business talk. I guess we know which way she leans. (Tania Tapsell, pictured.) “Meanwhile, the Rotorua Business Chamber is welcoming the apology from Christopher Luxon, but hoped there's "genuine reflection behind it".” 1/2
No need for Luxon to apologise over Rotorua business meeting comments, mayor says
The Rotorua mayor says the prime minister's comments to a business audience last week were him being honest, and she doesn't think he needed to apologise.
rnz.co.nz
#Christchurch #NZ 8:30am Sea level sleet showers amongst the cold rain. Dark enough inside you need to turn the lights on. 2.7ºC, MetService app says "feels like" -3ºC. Imma stay indoors 😄 Bet it’s cold down south!
Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿@notjustdna.bsky.social · 3d ago#NZ Nifty drop when the southerly hit #Christchurch, and a steady decline since 😊
Wow. "the Romanian naval forces carried out a controlled explosion to divert a large volume of water to the Old Danube and the Cernavodă nuclear power plant to help with its cooling" www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
South-eastern Europe faces heatwave energy crunch as Romania detonates Danube rock to increase water flow – Europe live
Explosives used to move a large rock and let more water flow to cool nuclear power plant
theguardian.com
H5N1 detected in humble seagull threatens to spread bird flu beyond the beach www.abc.net.au/news/science...
Now bird flu has hit seagulls a 'super-spreader' event is more likely
Unlike other birds detected with the virus so far in Australia, seagulls travel beyond coastal environments to more urban and inland areas too.
abc.net.au
#NZ “Older drivers will no longer be routinely screened for dementia when seeking a medical certificate to have their licences renewed.” – paywalled, so I can’t read it to find if in reality it’s more than a simple yes/no thing that the headline and lede implies.
The Press@thepress.co.nz · 3d agoDementia screening has been found to be a poor indicator of safe driving.
#NZ science funding It’s worth reading. “Brutality toward the science is not commercialisation at all. It is liquidation: selling the orchard and calling it a harvest.” It’s broadly the same points we’ve all been making, but related better to investment – by an actual investor here in NZ. 1/n
Richard Easther@rjme.bsky.social · 6d agoMark Bregman's comment on this should be its own article @newsroom.co.nz @tmurphynz.bsky.social newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/31/g...
Speaking of research time scales, this press release gives some idea. Parry Guildford’s work on this starts in the mid-late 90s, association with others form along the way, and now it’s 2026. They’re now working towards a preventative drug. 1/2
Otago Biochemistry@otagobiochemist.bsky.social · 6d agoUnique partnership anchors life-saving research The power of human connection lies at the heart of the partnership between US-based non-profit No Stomach For Cancer and Otago Biochemistry’s Cancer Genetics Laboratory www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroo...
#NZpol Not sure if you can wind that back “sorry if he caused offence.” McAnulty said that was what somebody says "when you're not really sorry". "It's like the weakest form of apology. It's like one level up from shrugging your shoulders and saying 'whoopsie'." Got to love McAnulty’s takes 😄
Watch: PM Christopher Luxon apologises for 'parent-child mentality' comments
The prime minister has apologised for his comments to the Rotorua business community last week, saying he was sorry they "did not properly acknowledge the challenges that many small business owners ar...
rnz.co.nz
🦠 Australia confirms first mass mortality event from H5 bird flu in native seabirds – Testing confirmed the mass death is due to H5N1 influenza – "Australians should expect to see more spread and larger numbers now of wildlife being affected." Reuters story at RNZ: www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/8...
Australia confirms first mass mortality event from H5 bird flu in native seabirds
The first mass mortality event in Australia from H5 bird flu has occurred in a large group of native seabirds in the state of South Australia, the federal government said on Monday.
rnz.co.nz
'A possible early warning signal' - volcanic activity increases beneath Mt Ruapehu – Alert Level 1, but they’ll be monitoring it, as ever www.rnz.co.nz/news/science...
'A possible early warning signal' - volcanic activity increases beneath Mt Ruapehu
Scientists are monitoring Mount Ruapehu after an increase in volcanic activity has been detected.
rnz.co.nz
#NZpol Subscription-only (for now, at least)
Sam Sachdeva@samsachdeva.bsky.social · 3d agoNot sure how much attention this will get, but it’s quite a big deal - Labour has pulled its support for the Govt’s controversial census ‘modernisation’ plans, meaning it no longer has the 75% majority it needs in Parliament: newsroom.co.nz/2026/08/03/g...
Dual harvests: electricity, and your crop
Eileen Clancy 🧿@clancyny.bsky.social · 3d agoUnderneath solar panels, plants grew much more and used less water, "Chiltepin pepper plants produced three times as much fruit as those grown in full sun. Jalapenos matched their usual harvest while using 65 percent less water. Tomatoes grown under the array came in at twice the normal yield."
#NZpol Winston Peters, at the end of a post defending the citizenship angle in his latest policy, “We have more of these types of policies to come.” ⇒ more populist nationalist stuff to come 😖 This isn’t how NZ rolls. NZ has a history of welcoming & supporting people. But clearly not NZ First.
#NZ “Older drivers will no longer be routinely screened for dementia when seeking a medical certificate to have their licences renewed.” – paywalled, so I can’t read it to find if in reality it’s more than a simple yes/no thing that the headline and lede implies.
The Press@thepress.co.nz · 3d agoDementia screening has been found to be a poor indicator of safe driving.
📚 Upcoming ⬇️ #booksky
Big Green Books@biggreenbooks.bsky.social · 3d agoSIGNED BOOK NEWS! "As We Fall Through Time" by Claire North. A new epic tale of time travel, betrayal and a love that echoes through the centuries. It's published in October. Pre-order a SIGNED copy HERE! biggreenbookshop.com/signed-copie...
I hate teaser headlines "You’ll never guess" that turn out to be the dead obvious reason if you’ve been keeping up 🙄The one that’s been reported all over the place, for months.
In times like these, it’s important to pay attention to the grand unifying narratives ideas are hooking on to. Like that children are there to be controlled by adults, like babies and birth are commodities to be controlled by the state, like citizenship is a state more valuable than non-citizenship.
